


Homeworld

by Sifl



Series: It's Like Christmas Up In Here [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Love Triangle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-06
Updated: 2012-06-06
Packaged: 2017-11-07 02:16:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/425788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sifl/pseuds/Sifl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The aftermath of a session where SBURB went a little differently. </p><p>In a world where everything is predestined and preset, Davesprite knows that there is a loose end waiting to be cut. It's either himself or Alpha Dave.</p><p>There is no room for extras when they return home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very direct companion to "And You And I" as this is one of the realities Dave "sees" when he and Jade are passing through space in chapter three. This story will eventually have plot and it deals with a huge cast, but the primary romance (and eventual primary focus) is the Dave/sprite/Jade thing. As for the other characters, feel free to suggest pairings for them.
> 
> And yes, this work is named for a Yes song, as well. :)

The white was the light against the black that she had a knack for- she slid her hand over her eyes to shield her face from the supernova reflecting off the ebony waters before it blinded her.

Rose Lalonde stood by her image mirrored in the glassy water and adjusted her eyes to the dawning intensity of the sudden sunrise. She knew very well that this particular day was significant- this was the very first dawn they'd found themselves in since the Scratch and if her role as a Seer of Light told her anything, it was that new beginnings (especially those involving her aspect) were something that needed to be monitored carefully. After all, they set the pace for whatever came after.

Beginnings were, quite literally, what determined the "luck of the draw" until the finale and free will, while important, was nothing more than the ability to choose which beginnings to pursue. After The Choice, fortune decided all.

And as a Seer knows there are many beginnings to infinitely many paths of fate along the road of life- one sunrise in any other context would not be such a monumental sight in the eyes of a reader of luck, beautiful as they are, but this beginning came from The End and that made it all the more unique.

She didn't know how, but she knew that this particular dawn- this particular moment- was going to reveal to her a glimpse of the fortunes of someone- of herself, her friends, or of the newest Bilious Slick, Rose did not know- close to her and she felt obligated to bear witness, analyze, and read the omens like tea leaves swimming in the vast, clouded sea of her mind's eye.

Still, the cool early morning winds chilled her bones and she didn't appreciate being awoken from her naps by visual cues from her sight beyond sight. She grumpily puzzled over what to do until the powers inside of her compelled her to once again dare to behold the white light on the black water.

Her own shadow loomed over onto the deep pool and she followed the straight black line her figure cast across the silvery expanse with her eyes until she reached the shore on the other side.

Indeed, this new universe replica was a strange place; Jade had been primarily responsible for the birth of the new froggod and so it made sense that the first place they would arrive looked like the island she was raised on, but the flora was huge and tropical while the fauna definitely was not.

A nondescript wolf sat on the other side of the water nonchalantly; it had either not yet noticed Rose or felt unthreatened by her as it didn't even give her a glance. It stoically kept its eyes glued to the sky above it.

From across the waters, Rose took in the strange creature with a sad smirk. The thing was so pale that it looked almost white beneath the penetrating sun- not even its facial features were outstanding. Anyone else would blame the phenomenon on Jade's lack of imagination, but Rose knew better.

Jade did not lack imagination ever. She simply missed Becquerel and this shade of an animal was a subconscious gesture to his memory.

Again, Rose braved the brightness but this time sent her eyes to the sky, following those of the Bec-wolf.

She needn't have, though, because no sooner had she angled her head did a single black bird descend to the pristine wolf-beast's feet.

How cliché, she thought to herself, that Dave would have a crow represent him. The only relation she could recall him having with a crow applied to his sprite, and that had just been _coincidence_. Jade's white wolf at least had true sentimental value.

(Rose was a Seer and she could see things that are and might be, but she was blind to things that were or would have been. The luck that mattered glimmered before her like a yellow brick road unfurled at her feet with its many divulging paths, and yet it was still a one-way road; once a path was decided upon, there was no turning back.

She had achieved godtier by Jack Noir's hands after she had been so foolishly played by her dear Noble Horrorterrors- she had the choice to seek Noir out but instead chose to meditate atop her quest bed, wrathfully pondering the outcome of using her brother's ability to traverse through time and stop her from daring to convene with the lords of dark mythos. Her reality was one of many, she reasoned, and so wondered how different an existence created from another set of her choices could possibly be. For example, if she chose to face Jack now in her rage, would she miraculously be able to take him down within a shroud of grimdarkness or would she fail?

At the time, she had been unable to read her fortune and did not know that such a choice, a reaction of anger and folly, would have had the same terminal result as the one she had made in this present reality- Bec Noir, the damned demon, appeared and thrust his sword through her in a flash of murderous thunder. She had watched in a detached stupor as the fates revealed themselves to her and she ascended along with the odds of her party's success, leading her to forget any forks in the road she had passed until this moment; Rose was a god now and she believed that she had made the correct choices to reach a bright future. The alternatives from _then_ didn't matter _now_.

That was what she had beheld in her mind's eye to be the true path and therefore she had not and still did not remember that, in a session gone differently- neither wrong nor right, as such labels are subjective- Dave became both a bird and a boy because he had _seen_ , with eyes lost in blackness and bathed in green light all at once, his fate cast before him from the dark eyes of the same kind of carrion crow that she was criticizing for, ironically, the lack of artistic vision and deeper meaning.

The crow had been more than a simple _coincidence,/i >._

Her dreams, his dreams, and memories of days before SBURB blurred together and left holes in her field of vision much like too much light washes out film; the overexposure removed key details from the big picture.

Rose, with all the luck she had the good fortune to foretell, was blind to the fact that Dave had, in the event of any reality resulting in the delivery of the Tumor, known about his demise at the hands of Bec Noir and his following suicide at the green sun. Instead she blamed his destiny on the poor cards the game had dealt him. Dave, who acted as his own harbinger of death in black feathers, could see more than she could and, for once, understand more than she could hope to learn.

Indeed, Rose Lalonde was blind to the fact that luck did not actually matter.)

She watched the crow hop around the paws of the wolf and release a coarse, piercing caw before taking off and resettling on the canine's head. The lupine playfully shook itself and sent the bird plummeting to the ground.

Squawking in tandem with Rose's laughter, the crow ruffled its feathers and flew away.

The white wolf waited for a little while after the ebony visitor departed. Nonchalantly, it traded a few messages with the bird hovering above it before it stood up and padded into the inland jungle.

 

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Unfortunately, the sunrise did not hold the same allure to every Seer as it did to Rose.

Terezi Pyrope, for one, did not see the appeal of contingencies within beginnings. In fact, she did not hear, feel, taste, or smell the allure of Lady Luck whatsoever, either. No, it was the blind mistress of _Justice_ that enchanted her and Terezi comforted herself in the self-gratifying belief that choices resulted from the independent desires of the wayward vagabond on the road of life. Yes, the illusion of that thing called luck scattered about could entice the foolish down certain roads, but the swift hand of Justice would ultimately guide them to their destination, be it one of penitent suffering or righteous reward.

In fact, the sunlight was intolerable.

Her slumber through the dawn was more than a Troll's escape from the day; it was a much-deserved respite from the sights of the many possibilities that plagued her blank eyes daily and she cuddled her stuffed dragons to block out the piercing light.

There was no doubt that Terezi had a variety of unorthodox quirks devoted to unsettling bystanders. She poked, prodded, licked, interrogated, and judged her way into the lives and hearts of others, whether as a poisonous thorn or a benevolent (if pushy) protector, but her most unusual attribute was her affinity for playtime. Specifically, playing judge.

It was unsettling how she enjoyed sentencing her dear scalemates to their deaths.

She knew her games were odd, but she (smilingly) insisted that they must be enacted. Lemonsnout was a liar and coward, the green one was sinfully envious and the scarlet one, while a beautiful color, was known for crimes of wrathful passion. The mustard-brown one had conned many a scalemate with its duplicity and the chocolate one was too weak-willed to abstain from being an accomplice to unlawful behavior. The royal blue plush was known to ravish unwilling parties and the darker navy dragon was a thief. They were quite a motley crew and try as she might, Terezi could never tame them before the repercussions of their unjust actions caught up with them.

And so the games must begin.

It was a pity, really, that the only scalemate she could really believe in was the pristine Pyralsprite.

Because she was blind, Terezi did not judge based on appearances- they were, as the cliché says, deceiving. No, there was always an underlying motive, meaning, depth hidden beneath the surface that she, as a legislacerator, was obligated to uncover. Absolutely nothing was as simple as it looked and absolutely nobody was as good as they tried to be and that was the truth.

Except Pyralsprite. The little dragon was as unblemished as its soft white casing and the only breaks from its guiltless hide were its eyes- Pyralsprite had these perfect scarlet eyes that bore into a bystander and sought out the sin therein. To look into Pyralsprite's eyes was to have your whole soul reflected back at you in a burning vortex created as a reward for your terrible deeds and depraved heart.

And somehow, Terezi was able to see (although not really see, as, again, she was quite blind) through the fire and flames to see that Pyralsprite, like her lusus, held the power that Terezi wanted, had the wisdom Terezi wanted, and saw more than Terezi ever could even since before her eyes were fried by Surya's lurid glare.

(She'd never say this, but Terezi Pyrope, while attuned to just about every possibility of fate, was blind to the fact that Pyralsprite reflected all the things she valued in this world. Her lusus was her parent and Pyralsprite a strange amalgamation of a protector and partner and dear child rolled into one adorable plush toy. She projected onto it all the qualities she liked about herself and all the other scalemates be damned- she hanged green envy, yellow-bellied cowardice, and sin red because they were guilty of imperfection and always would be.

She enjoyed their "just" killings because it was good riddance!

Once, she had thought she felt that way because they were just bits of fluff, much like she thought other trolls were other worthless strangers for her manipulation and amusement. Now she knew, in her heart of hearts, that these lynching sprees sprang from a futile effort to eradicate her shortcomings through ritualistic means. And it wasn't just for her- she choked the life out of the imperfections of her friends through her cuddly companions, too.

After all, if she believed in her mind that representational death sentences could squelch out the evils of the spirit, then surely her ruthless playtime did just that.

This was how she justified her most difficult actions- she goaded herself into believing in a reality where the decisions to protect her friends, no matter how ambiguous those choices were in actuality, were always righteous.

Threatening to kill John as retribution for Tavros' death had not been wrong because it distracted Vriska from pursuing Jack Noir until The Mirthful Messiahs had made a grand entrance on the roof. It hadn't mattered that Terezi had been lying about doing the Heir harm or that such an act would have been unjust in and of itself- it was for the greater good. It was also was not wrong of Terezi to allow Gamzee to utterly defeat her spidery friend before allowing Karkat to intervene. She reasoned that had Vriska not been on the other end of Zillyhoo, she'd have never realized that her godtiered self could not even take care of a raging clown let alone the blackest jester. Vriska might've lost her arm again, but the grim alternatives Terezi had beheld in her mind's eye did not come to pass.

Everything was as it should be. She had convinced herself of this, therefore it was so.

Terezi did not believe in grey area. There was black and there was white and nothing more. Wrong and right were the only choices and they, like destiny, weren't defined by luck or chance but by one's own hand and deluding yourself into claiming neutral is cowardly and stupid. Legislacerators are meant to abhor and sniff out such lies.

Grey is a cheap casing over the body. It's an illusion created by the weak mind trying to justify itself, she'd say.

But be that as it may, Terezi couldn't-and can't- see into her own mind as clearly and objectively as she believes. Good and evil may be two sides of the same coin but the reality was- and is- that she couldn't tell which damn side is up or down and even if she could, it wouldn't matter because the whole coin is one solid metallic _grey_.

Her faith in her own justice- her belief that your reality was all in your head and that there is, infallibly, only right and wrong- could get her far, but at the end of the day Terezi's morality was just like her Pyralsprite- a sweet, little,

white

 _lie._ )

Still slumbering, she drew her most trusted dragon companion closer and gave him a good sniff. Lovely, as always- he smelled like fresh snow and sugar and clean laundry and… something else. As she put her nose closer to its eyes, a pinky-cotton-candy smell wafted and she dreamed, for a moment, of the pale flesh of a newborn human child. Had she been a more lucid dreamer, she'd have shaken him from her dreams, but the image stuck and Terezi puzzled as to why, when the infant in her mind turned around, the bright ruby eyes staring back at her seemed so familiar.

She'd beheld this child before through whatever sensory abilities she still had, but she couldn't quite place how he related to her Pyralsprite.

Or perhaps she did and just didn't want to acknowledge it.

Regardless, the sun's piercing rays popped her dreambubble and she scurried deeper into the little island cave she and her compatriots had settled in for the day. Nimbly, she stepped over John's splayed legs and cackled quietly to herself when she discovered that the Heir held one of Dave's legs captive like a teddy bear (or Pyralsprite) and the other was underneath his lower back while Dave's torso was contorted so that his head was neatly wedged in his windy friend's armpit (how they got into that position, she'd never know.)

His placement looked incredibly uncomfortable and Terezi figured that was why Dave was awake and watching her through his shades. "Don't think that just because John's got me down I'm gonna let you take advantage of me and remove my dignity."

"Coolkid, I think Mr. Windypants has done that already. There's not much left for a poor blind girl like me to take."

Dave smiled a little, but it was barely noticeable. "Nah. He's my bro and this is what we do. In fact, this is actually how I gain my dignity. By being a body pillow. Literally," He grunted and flailed his free arm in the air as John smashed his face deeper in his armpit, "and ironically," he gasped out when he wiggled his face out of his friend.

"This human emotion called friendship sure is weird," Terezi muttered, slightly disappointed that Dave's glasses were still securely on his face.

"Why the hell do you trolls keep calling it an emotion? There are emotions involved and stuff but friendship is more like just a "thing" than an emotion in and of itself."

"Well, it's still just weird." She adjusted the plush in her arms and sniffed around. "But where's Rose?" She hadn't noticed the girl had gone until now.

"She left a few minutes ago, but I'm sure she's fine. It's some shit to do with the sunrise, like, Seer of Light business. I assume it's exclusive to the Seer because otherwise Spiderbitch," he spat the name out with a hiss, "would be out there too. And then I'd be out there making sure she didn't try anything funny."

Dave had actually not had contact with another human since his ascension to godhood and it was no real wonder that he was so suspicious of all the trolls' actions towards his friends, especially now that he really knew them. Sure, he was fine with Terezi, Kanaya, and (amazingly) Karkat, but Gamzee and Vriska were much trickier- Dave learned quickly that Gamzee, while normally mellow, had some "totally fucked up obsessive" feelings for Dave and Tavros' severed head (this had actually been a surprise to everyone, as far as Dave's inclusion went, and whatever transpired afterwards was one of the other mysterious key things that created the bridge over the impasse of mutual douchebaggery of Strider and Vantas.)

But the tension between Dave and Vriska wasn't just awkward- it was almost palpable.

Terezi was not entirely sure why. If she had to hazard a guess, it had something to do with everything, but most notably the very boy holding the Knight of Time captive at the moment. She'd gathered that Rose factored into it, too, but Dave was very secretive about anything surrounding his dislike of Vriska (besides the fact that Terezi had complained about her so much in the medium. Terezi could never live that one down.) But the skilled eyes of the Seer of Mind saw right through that excuse and Terezi had been a little hurt by his distrust of her.

When she had confronted him, his reasoning for skimming the issue had been very solid and even she couldn't justify an argument against it: "Even though you bitch about her all the time," he'd told her, "it's pretty damn obvious that you are still her friend or kismesister (she would interrupt and protest at that) or whatever the hell you call it and you might be inclined to let something slip and I can't risk that."

He'd had a similar talk with Kanaya and Karkat, apparently (which had pissed Karkat "the hell off, where does that asshole find the nerve to shut us out? Is he being all racist because we are trolls? Is that why he won't fucking talk to us? What a fucking poser douchebag hypocrite! We should kick him off this spaceship-meteor-disk thing for being a prick" until around the time Karkat's eyes began to change color- then both of them disappeared for a long time and when they came back, Karkat was unusually polite to Dave) but eventually most of their aggressive talk was just that- talk. The dynamic reminded Terezi a little of how Sollux and Karkat used to act and as glad as she was for that, she couldn't help but feel a little left-out sometimes.

Actually, now that Terezi really thought about it, Dave was borderline reclusive for most of the trip and he spent more time with Karkat than with the rest of them. He rarely had to be around any of them, though, as he was the Knight of Time and could manipulate the years to go either faster or slower depending on what he wanted.

In fact, if Dave didn't want to, he'd never have to interact with anyone ever again.

However, the solitary snarker hadn't shut himself in his own timeloop yet and he pulled Terezi from her reverie. "But I wouldn't worry about it. She'll be fine and you still look sleepy."

"Whatever you say, coolkid, you and all your weird friendship stuff." With a playful pout, Terezi adjusted the red glasses on her head and turned to get a clearer "look" at the human pile at her feet. "Do all human friends sleep together?"

"Nah. Not always. But the best of bros and, like, couples and stuff do. Basically, if you, like," he shrugged from beneath John, "love each other."

"So you are going to be John's matesprite? What about all that "ho-mo-sexual" issue?"

Dave snickered. "Bromos before homos, Terezi, but we're still totally getting married. Assuming I get out of this weird position alive. This right here might be a dealbreaker."

"I still don't understand most of this strange human conversation, but okay. I'll take it that you are some equivalent of palemates or something. And so," she tilted her head to Jade and Davesprite, "I assume Mister Orange Creamsicles and Jade are also "bromos before homos"?"

Instantly, she felt the air adopt a chill and the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end.

Jade, who was more or less maintaining the island they were all standing on through mysterious means, arrived mentally exhausted and had become unresponsive shortly before the two groups of friends had their rendezvous- John had carried her into the cave and propped her against the wall before going back outside to excitedly greet his troll friends. When they had all settled down to sleep, Jade had been curled up in a ball by herself, but she wasn't in that lonesome position anymore- at some point during the night, Davesprite had snuck in and leaned her against him and he now had his good wing wrapped around her like a blanket.

And as luck would have it, the sprite was also awake for this conversation now, but he refrained from saying anything to give himself away. Both Daves knew it, though, as an orange gaze burned through Terezi and across the cave to the back of the Knight of Time's head. The knight's red irises weren't giving off friendly vibes, either.

Terezi regretted saying anything and gripped Pyralsprite tighter.

Finally, Dave (the human one) broke the silence. "I think we should all go back to sleep instead of trying to climb the shitheap Everest that is understanding relationships." Terezi normally would have probed more, but he said it with an unusual amount of finality that the words died in her throat. She nodded and scurried deeper into the cave and hid behind Karkat's snoring form.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside, Rose continued to watch the birds in the sky.

Two of the crows had broken from the murder and were slowly circling one another. It would only be a matter of time before one of them made a move- it was nature's dance for dominance and the outcome would not be pretty.

She drew her full lips into a thin line and pondered upon what she had just seen in this beginning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade is a dreambubble master!!!! She is the girl of everyone's dreams!!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Davesprite name fiasco I wrote before it was canonized, so even though it is technically wrong, I'm keeping it. This is fanfiction and I do what I want. :)

The sudden return of Jade's seemingly narcoleptic tendencies was not random. She had not closed her eyes to merely ward off exhaustion, but to facilitate the safe and stable environment she and her friends were currently occupying.

Now, she was no Horrorterror, but she could still woof out a nice dreambubble if she put her mind to it.

When she had first been introduced to Feferi, she had been rather appalled by the slippery circumstances she had found herself in, but she had eventually adjusted to it much like all the other planetless dreamers had.

And then unlike everyone else, she had grilled the seadweller about the secrets of how dreambubbles worked until the dreamkeeper, exasperated by Jade's unquenchable thirst for knowledge, took her to the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors to observe firsthand the strange process. Honestly, the Space Witch still did not have a clue as to what went on in a dark god of the outer ring to make it glub dreambubbles (glubbubbles, she and Feferi had joked), but she had learned enough through the feel of the energy in the air to figure out how to create her own spheres of sleep-illusions using her "spacey powers" and the knowledge of universal innerworkings garnered from the remains of Bec's consciousness.

They weren't exactly the same and nowhere near as permanent as Outer Ring bubbles, but they got the job done.

Her last thoughts before collapsing on the prow of the ship were how happy she was that Davesprite and Rose had been with her while she honed her technique. They had been a huge help, what with Rose and her penchant for Horrorterror mythos and Dave with insights into how space and time aren't all that different, in ironing out the kinks of managing multiple bubbles (within other bubbles, to boot!) at once. The preparations really came in handy- especially since she had to create special bubbles for the trolls in lieu of sopor slime.

When they had all settled down and closed their eyes, she had opened hers, hopped up, and proceeded to wander around the cave with all the curiosity of a young child while the sprites chuckled at her enthusiasm- they had no real need for sleep- and urged her to let herself rest, too.

She waved them off, reminding them that she couldn't actually sleep if she was focused on keeping all the dreambubbles afloat.

It was kind of fun, actually, to be able to see what each of her friends' memories and thoughts were- the iridescent bubbles played out their dreams along the top of their shimmering surface like a movie and Jade delighted in seeing all of the reflections fill the island at once. Unfortunately, the fact that many of the dreamers did not actually know she was watching their unbridled trains of uninhibited thought run rampant made her feel like a voyeur, so she decided to take the time to step in and announce her presence to them in person.

Since her shipmates had all been with her and were very well aware of her dreamweaving skills, she decided to skip visiting them and went straight for the trolls. After dodging a few carapace-bubbles (and Jaspersprite- the wily cat was full of energy after meeting all of these new people), Jade steeled herself and entered Kanaya's dreams.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hello?"

"Oh my, Jade!" The sweet lilt and precise speech rang elatedly from her green lips. "I very nearly did not believe Rose when she said that we would be able to sleep without sopor nor did I realize you would be playing at Feferi. It is very nice to see you!"

"So you know you are sleeping?"

Kanaya laughed. "Oh, Rose and windy John assured us about the safety of sleeping in the first place and I realized that this was a dream quickly after it started. They did not explain how this could be nor did they inform us of your hand in it, however."

"Gosh, that still makes this first impression thing a whole lot easier!"

At that, Kanaya clapped her hands and spread her arms out to gesture to her sunny room. "Would you like to borrow a dress for your first impression? Not to say that you look badly, it is just that black simply does not suit you as well as colors do." She gave a giddy smile. "Also it feels like forever since I was in my room, illusion or not, and it would bring me great pleasure to make you new clothes."

"Oh, are you sure? But- wait, but what happens when I exit your bubble? If you are dreaming these clothes up, then won't they disappear when I leave?" Suddenly, she brought her hands to her cheeks and gasped. "WHAT IF I INTRODUCE MYSELF TO EVERYONE AND I'M NAKED? Ohhhh, nooo!"

If it were even possible, Kanaya's chalky face paled even more. "I had not considered that." She pursed her lips. "But I must ask about the lovely island we first met on. What or where is that?"

Jade busied herself with looking at Kanaya's wardrobe as she answered. "Oh, it's technically my dreambubble. If this bubble pops or you leave it, you just end up back at that island."

"It is a beautiful island," she said. "And you… dreamed up these bubbles?"

"Um, kind of." She fiddled with the frills of one of Kanaya's more impressive skirts. "I made the bubble part to be like a filter to ward off bad, outside thoughts from my and other people's dreams, like a kind of dreamcatcher. I pretty much made a little pocket of space that you filled with whatever memory you started thinking of! Neat, huh?"

"Very, as I assume the word is not used to mean "clean" or "tidy" rather than "awesome" or "cool". Yet I must ask you, how are you doing this?"

After perusing the clothes on display, Jade floated over to inspect the seamstress' current outfit. "I was not actually sleeping when I got off the ship. It was more like deep meditating." She examined Kanaya's face. "Gosh, everything about you is so stylish- even your horns are classy. And your fangs!"

 

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"Ohhh, I love _your_ fangs, too!"

"Want me to bite you with 'em to say hello?" Vriska spat.

"No thanks, but I still want to get to know you! John's told me so much about you- it's really nice to finally meet you!"

"Ohhhhhhhh? John told you about me? Well, he never mentioned you."

"Well, of course not! He had so many more interesting and important things to talk about! And you had a lot of really cool adventures to help him out with, like, gaining all those levels and stuff. Y'know, he sure would not have gotten very far without you- how can you have… just… oh, man, how do I word it? How can you have so many irons in the fire and not lose your mind? I certainly wasn't able to do that! I definitely lost my mind a few times!"

Vriska couldn't tell if this girl was sincere or incredibly cunning.

"Well, listen here, little woofbeastie. When you're raised to be the best," she proudly flashed the fangs that had caught Jade's attention, "You're going to be the best. And I'm the best troll. So what's that tell ya?"

Jade looked at Vriska with her big, starry eyes and her smile grew softer, but no less sincere. "You're really cool," she said.

"You fucking bet!" With a flourish, she whipped her hair over her shoulder. "I'm cooler than that ice-cold shit planet you came from!"

"Oh, I'm betting. I'm betting."

"Soooooooo, why are you giving me that look? I know I'm totally amazing, but we've just met and surely my sheer superiority couldn't have already made you adore me. Or is it just your spacey brain messing with your face?"

She ignored the small insult and shook her head. "You remind me a little of someone, that's all. Oh!" her ears perked up and she covered her surprised mouth with a quick hand. "I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know that I'm, uh, the person who made this dreambubble you're in."

 

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"Oh, for fuck's sake," Karkat had replied, "so instead of being in the slimy tentacle clutches of some fucking horrorterrors, we're in the even slimier protein chute of a slobbering-"

Jade cut him off before he lost track of the conversation. "Thank you for pointing out how I need to wipe my apparently slobbering mouth. It's really nice to meet you in person for the first time, too."

"Dammit, Jade, I'm sorry you took that the wrong way. I know it was a little callous and, aw, jeegus fucking Sufferer H. Christ, it's just that I am so fucking ti-"

"What did you just say?"

"I didn't say anything! You didn't let me finish, so obviously-"

"No, about "jeegus fucking" something."

"Will you let me finish my-"

"C'mon, Karkat! It was funny!"

"For the LAST time, I-" he slumped his shoulders and sighed. "It's what Dave always said after I told him about the Sufferer. Jeegus fucking Sufferer H. Christ. The full version is "Jeegus fucking Sufferer tapdancing Karkat Vantas you fuckass dumpass chumpass H. Christ", but that's way too unwieldy and there's no way I'm drawing that whole-"

Jade was in stitches. "Oh wow, really? I'm not entirely sure what all that means but that is too funny! So you and Dave are best bros now?"

"What? Why the hell would I be "best bros"-whatever that is, we aren't re-fucking-lated- with that douchenozzle? I mean, oh, yes, I am so completely enthralled by his coolkid antics that my pants travel upwards with the excitement of a thousand wheeled rides- whatever those are, he keeps going on about them- when he's around and start bringing me up with them when they reach my chin because going any higher would result in a pants-induced thinkpan-lobotomy- which might have happened in order for this fucking anomaly of "Dave-induced elation" to come to pass in any circumstance EVER, thanks in advance for solving the great mystery, you Snooping Dog, or whatever that dog's name is, troll Will Smith is still vastly better in every way- and he and I suddenly find ourselves so gogdamned high that we can't fucking come down because if we do I'll rip the bulge-stitches of my thinkpan-severing pants and be nook-naked and he's such a fucking nooksniffer that my exposed nook will put him in nooksniffing heaven and I don't want him fucking sniffing my nook even if it's in an ironic fashion versus an unironic one like those fucking shades of his- he's such a grublicker for wanting to hide the sickening friendship feelings those things imbed into his brain because just because they're sickening doesn't mean they should be shut out. I mean, being a "best bro" or whatever is kind of like the pale and ashen quadrants and that's still a kind of- what do you bulgewhiffers call it? Love." He breathed. "Yeah, maybe he's not quite as insufferable as I thought. But he's still a PRICK."

Jade's laughter reached its peak and she fell to the floor of his bedroom, gasping for air.

"Oh, Karkat, I'm so happy that your "friendship feelings" aren't hidden by something stupid like a pair of sunglasses with deep personal significance! It's great to know your own crabbiness is all that is holding you back!" Jade halted her gleeful peals of glee long enough to stand up and give her friend a hug.

"I never said those fucking shades could actually hide the-" he shut up when he felt her arms around him.

"See? When you take naps, you get to meet people face-to-face and they don't start thinking that your big, scary, fuckass monologues are completely insulting and rude."

"…I didn't mean anything by the slobbering woofbeast comment."

"I know. But do you promise me you'll sleep regularly?"

"…Fine. If you're in charge of these bubbles."

"Well, Dave is technically helping, too."

Karkat immediately took a step back and cast his reddened face around the room. "WHAT! He's here, too?"

Jade shook her head. "Nooo, silly. I asked Rose to tell him to keep time outside paused and stable while we rest here in the big dream bubble where all of these little dream bubbles I made for all of you are!"

 

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"So it's like some kind of dream-inception! Hee hee!"

Jade nodded up at Terezi from her pile of scalemates. "I guess. I think. I just thought we could use a break before we entered the scratched session."

Puzzled, Terezi scooted behind her and began rubbing the velvety tips of Jade's ears. "But we've had a break. It was a sweep-and-a-half long! Or, uh, three years, as you guys say."

Jade swallowed some impending barks and craned her head closer for Terezi to scratch. "But not around each other. We need to get to know the whole team and how we've all changed over such a long time! And, ohhh, to the left a little, no, no, other left, that's really nice, yeah, riiiight there!" she guided her blind friend's hand over onto the desired area of her scalp, "And anyway, I'm hoping to permanently keep this dreambubble running as a place to leave all the consorts and denizens while we figure out this strange new session of Earth!"

"Huh? I thought you could take them all with you in little mini-portable planets, like bite-sized candies! Except you don't eat them."

Jade picked up a white scalemate and hugged it close. "I know I can, but I feel like they'd be safer in a bubble away from the action. And also, I can't just rain down salamanders and nakkodiles and turtles and penguins and frogs and sprites everywhere!"

"Oh!" Terezi started to giggle uncontrollably and bounce on her toes before zooming around to kneel level with Jade's face. "But think how delicious! Grapey turtles and lemony and blue-raspberry salamanders and powdered sugar Prospitians and licorice Dersites…" If Terezi had still had visible pupils, they would have widened considerably, "…bright candy red nakkodiles!" She licked her lips and Jade's dog instinct made her subconsciously mimic the gesture, "And all of that is topped by Mister Orange Creamcicles!" After giving a sudden, swift licking to the Pyralsprite in Jade's arms, Terezi's tongue slipped back into her mouth (whether Karkat's slobber comment could be considered an insult in the first place was now a defined unknown to Jade, considering that he and Terezi were close and here the Libra was drooling like a dog) and her grin turned itself down from "intentionally insane" to "thoughtfully manic." She sat back on her haunches and snatched away Pyralsprite to stroke as she considered the theoretical rainbow flood of adorable creatures. "But I guess I can see how that would be problematic. Except," she snickered and picked out an orange scalemate for Jade to hold, "I can't actually see. Hee hee hee!"

 

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"Do my eyes deceive me? Man, this is a motherfuckin' miracle," Gamzee uttered upon Jade's entrance. "I was all chillin' out here, and suddenly you just up and appearify like," languidly, he breathed in, "man, I don't know, some kind of vision in black. Can I just touch your ear-horns, man?"

Jade couldn't say why, but she felt very unsettled by the spatters of rainbow paint sprayed across the walls of the juggalo-troll's dreamroom. "Um, okay, Gamzee, that's fine. So, uh, I am Jade and you are in a dreambubble I made that's inside my own dreambubble. Just, um, so you know."

"Whoa! That's wild, man. So motherfuckin' wild."

She smiled as he gently rubbed her furry ears- he seemed pretty docile- and was about to ask if he had been painting recently when a third party entered the bubble and her calm, dignified voice interrupted the moment.

"Jade, my dearest brother has requested that you come with me. Well, in all actuality, he has demanded, but I feel that he is not in a position to be making demands."

"Rose?"

"He was going to only send his… sprightly and spritely counterpart, but since I am better," she said the word with barely-concealed pride, "at entering the bubbles, he chose me to be the one to actually retrieve you instead."

"Oh, okay. Well, uh, I will see you later, Gamzee."

As the Witch of Space took her friend's hand and blipped out of the bubble, Gamzee's reverberating and fading coos of amazement suddenly turned wrathful before silencing themselves completely.

"What was that? Is he okay?" She made a move to reenter his lucid sphere, but Rose held her fast and she felt another set of hands clasp her shoulders. Startled, she turned her head around to find Davesprite attached to the unknown fingers.

"Don't go back, Jade. He's fine. This is why the other Dave sent us," he said.

"Huh?"

Rose cocked her shoulders in a gesture of uncertainty. "Believe me; I do not have a firm grasp of all the details, myself. But according to our human Knight, Makara has unusual episodes that sound like an extremely mediocre enactment of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except Makara's Jekyll is also a destructive dunderhead rather than a misguided and foolish scientist. Also, Dave says that he is especially inclined to violent thoughts in his sleep, as he is presumably addicted to sopor slime even when awake. Considering that you cannot control the negative thought patterns of a dreamer once inside they are inside a dream bubble, leaving you with him would be unwise."

At this point, Davesprite felt the need to chime in. "And apparently both me and my other self decided to be a moron and make this guy love-hate him when we were twelve, so I couldn't go in because I'm so outrageously attractive that I might set him off worse just by looking at him.

"…Oh."

"Indeed. Now, I need to go and rest before I go to observe the subconscious omens Becquerel's remnants and your visions of the new Bilious Slick are about to reveal. Say hello to John before I leave you with this feathery asshole."

 

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The Heir didn't look up from his pantry even as a loud "pop" erupted from above him. "Hey Jade," he called. He was used to this by now.

"Hi, John! Rose also says hi," she replied. "See ya!"

He nodded and considered his overstuffed shelves. "Why is it that even in dreams all we have to eat is Betty Crocker stuff? Bluh."

 

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"And how was my favorite Egderp?" Davesprite asked as she pulled herself from the bubble.

"He seemed fine. Why? Did something happen while I was meditating?"

He wiggled his trailing spirit tail. "Naw, it's just that he's my one and only Egbert and I gotta make sure he's safe in the nest."

"You are a wonderful mama bird."

"I am simply the best there is. And apparently I had a career choice as a wonderful nest, too, in another lifetime." He spread his arms out to call attention to the fact that his alternate-timeline self was coiled around and beneath John in near-impossible ways. "I am so fucking happy he never made me do that shit."

Jade regarded him with a confused expression. "But he did!"

"What? When."

"Whenever I would practice on you two for managing multiple dreamers, you guys ended up like this. You probably never noticed because I always woke John up first so you'd get safely untangled. It came in handy, though, 'cause I can safely mesh their bubble overlaps as I need to even if they intersect on the normal physical plane because of -"

"Hey, so why don't we not talk about all this space shit?"

"You started it by asking, Dave!"

Because she had the memories of Jadesprite, or perhaps because she had the easiest time growing accustomed to her feathered friend being the only Dave in her vicinity, Jade had been the first to drop the "sprite" on his name. John hadn't been completely able to warm to using Dave's unembellished first name until near the end of their trip while Rose usually called him "Strider" and left it at that. Reclaiming his own name had been a victory for him and it gave him great pleasure whenever anyone called him by it.

Dave didn't know what was in a name before he had lost it, but he had learned the hard way that there certainly was something to it.

He smiled and tweaked Jade's ear. "And now I'm ending it. So tell me about this bigass bubble out here. What the hell are you dreaming about?"

"Well." She absentmindedly swatted at his hand with her ear, "The easy answer is that I'm envisioning my island, but that is not quite true. You know how I told you that… that Dave," she gestured to the fair-haired boy on the ground, "and I gathered a bunch of frogs to make a new universe?"

"Hn."

"So this is me, using the Land of Frost and Frogs as a physical base and dreaming of that new universe on top of it! Dave and I," she felt her friend shift beside her, "that Dave and I probably had a little bit of influence on what it would actually be like, since we caught the little hoppers, and Rose theorized the same thing. So this is hopefully a preview of what we'll get at the end of the game. The Post-Sburb Beta!"

"It's pretty cool, I guess. A little bit of nostalgia mixed with a little bit of awesome."

"I'm a little scared that I might be drawing too much from old memories," she muttered, growing quiet.

Immediately, Dave tried to perform damage control for whatever can of worms he didn't realize he'd open up. "Naw, keeping some of the old stuff is a good idea. If it wasn't broken, why fix it? I mean, I know that artists and stuff are always trying to find new material and shit to develop and then exploit and then make mainstream so they can milk it for like a goddamn killing or whatever and then leave it on the wayside like it meant no more to them than a creative one-night stand, 'cause they gotta stay on the media radar by staying off of it no matter how much they liked their original shtick in the first place, but that's why most of those fuckers ain't just douchebag hipsters, but completely stupid. Believe me, I'd know," he tried.

Her laugh was distracted. He was losing her. He reeled and just kept running his mouth.

"Hey, maybe you should go back to meditating. Maybe then you'll obtain whatever knowledge you're seeking. Like some kind of crazy dog-Buddha. Put a whole new spin on "dog-god"."

"I should really talk to Dave."

Before he could stop them, Davesprite's feathers ruffled themselves. "You already are," he said, hoping to come off a personable wiseass but instead succeeding only in displaying how utterly bitter and petty he felt.

Jade ignored him and walked over to the thin, silvery shimmer enveloping the sleeping knight of time and placed her hand upon it. "I will not be long. Just a few minutes."

 

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He was sitting cross-legged on a bed when she entered, like he had been expecting her. "'Sup, Harley?"

"Not much. What's up with you, cool kid?" She took a tentative step forward. "Feeling cool today?"

He grinned despite himself and got up off the bed. "Oh, you bet."

"Is shit ice cold up in here? It sure feels that way." She put her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth on her feet.

"Then you got it right, 'cause it's definitely ice cold up in here."

"And," she wandered forwards as she tried to think of more of Dave's most common turns of phrase, "is it wicked bananas?"

"The absolute most deplorable and vindictive kind of yellow tube-fruit that ever came out of the jungles of Africa. Or the most sicknasty, depending on how you use your slang." He drew closer.

"But wouldn't using "sicknasty as "wicked" be redundant?" They were about three feet away from one another and the gap was closing quickly.

"Maybe. Or it could just be a way to double the intensity of how fucking awesome I feel right now."

"That is… that is some wicked intensity right there!"

"You know it," he said, spreading out his arms and upturning his palms.

Jade threw her own arms around him before he could put them down and go off on some coolkid tangent. "I missed you."

"And you have no idea how much I missed you. Those trolls are absolutely insane, and while Terezi also happens to do double duty when it comes to the exact definition of her insanity, I am not referring to the "wicked sicknasty" kind of insanity."

Suddenly a third pair of arms and the voice they belonged to wrapped up both Dave and Jade. "I don't mean to interrupt but I just wanted in on this."

"Damn, Egbert, you can't get enough of me, can you."

"Excuse me, Dave, but this is my dreambubble and my dreamroom you are currently in, so that means that I get to do whatever I want."

"Chill, man, it's cool. I know I'm irresistible. Never said I blamed you."

Jade could tell that Dave was actually more than a little miffed at John for butting in even though the banter was taking place in good fun. "So, um," she lifter her head from Dave's shoulder to look from one boy to another, "I was wondering why Dave was hanging out with you in your dreamroom instead of actually sleeping."

"Jade, there's nothing wrong with your dreambubbles, honestly. It's just that Egbert over here couldn't bear the thought of having to go without seeing me again. He thought I'd up and go on another interdimensional cruise with an even more absurd crowd of bisexual fuckasses. And also because I think he thinks this is like in City of Angels where Nic Cage and that blonde chick finally meet after a lifetime of observing each other but never really interacting, like, hook up for a day and then she up and dies."

With more mangrit than was necessary, John squeezed his friends. "The parallels are too close for comfort on that one. And also you can say what you want, but I know you think that movie is one of the most tragic things you've ever seen."

"John, can you let go of us? You're making me feel like a sardine."

"Only if you both promise to have a food fight with me and all the Betty Crocker shit in my dream-pantry."

 

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Outside the bubble, a few minutes minute became what felt like an hour and then two hours and then three. Still, Davesprite didn't move from his spot.

Except for the few times he paced forwards and almost entered the bubble himself.

But he didn't and when finally- finally- Jade came out, he was waiting for her.

He took advantage of the coverage his sunglasses gave him and isolated any open emotion he was showing to his eyes. "The sun is going to come up soon. You'd best get that meditation shut-eye, missy, 'cause it's way past your Zen time."

Jade smiled and closed her eyes as she felt him wrap his wing around her. "You are simply the best mama bird there is."

He drew her closer and proceeded to glare at his alternate self.


End file.
